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I said "very far away" based on the translations that are provided if I mouse over "lejos". This was marked wrong. Is this actually incorrect, or just a DuoLingo glitch? Thanks in advance for any help.

What Duolingo does is provide us with a simple translation as a clue to what a given Spanish statement MEANS. And understanding what the Spanish statement MEANS is the only thing that is important. The different ways something can be said in English has no use to us and serves no purpose whatsoever. Duolinhgo does not teach translation. So best to just take note of the English statement Duolingo shows us and go with it, applying it to understand the MEANING of the Spanish statement. Doing anything else is a waste of time and brain power.

Absolutely. And the thing is ,Duolingo does not teach trnslation, while it is obvious that many of the students believe that is what is going on here And I get the impression that they believe that when they have successfully learned Spanish, when they want to say something in Spanish the first thing they will do is translate from an English way of saying iwhatever to Spanish within their minds then speak the Spanish transation. But that idea is completely wrong.

English is the only tool we have available to use to learn Spanish apart from just using pictures like Rosetta Stone excvlusively does.

An important thing is to ever keep it in mind that our use of English only serves a crutch and that we will be needing to discard all use of English eventually.

Most speakers of Spanish did not use English to learn Spanish, or any other language.

Another important thing to ever keep in mind is that there is a difference between what Spanish words mean and what they can be translated to. Never think a translation is the same as a fundamental meaning.

As a simplified explanation of what I am saying here is that “rojo” does not mean, “red.” Though “rojo” translates in English to “red.”

What “rojo” means is the color of blood and most ripe tomatoes. And just as “red” does also. But as far as what “rojo” means is concerned, English has nothing to do with it. And just as Spanish has nothing to do with what "red" means.

So this means we need to learn both what Spanish words can be translated into Engliush to, as well as what they essentially mean while thinking in just Spanish and not English.

hesolomaom, a native English speaker who has become fluent in another language then has their "original thoughts" in that language. Not in English.

It is my observation that a number of new students have the idea what they are supposed to be learning how to do expert translations in their head back and forth involving English. Always thinking in English first and last. But that is not the case. Learning to think in Spanish is the great aim. This is why when one sees the word, “rojo" one shouldn't think of "red", but the color which " rojo" is. That is how one begins thinking in Spanish.

hesolomon, since you asked. English is the best thing we have to work with. But we need to understand it is a crutch, one we will be needing to ultimately throw away... except for when communicating in English. English is good for that!

Actually, this is close but not quite true. What really happens is that they get a few people to devise these "translations" for us, providing context clues and different translation options. They, being human, think of these translations the way the devise the question. We, also being humans, decodify these context clues in varied ways, depending on colloquial uses, common phrases in vogue at this time, different ways our brains connect these things, and sometimes we come up with the same phrase, many times not (at least at first.) Then our interpretation may be valid, or not for some reason. For valid alternatives, we report or discuss here, and when common reinterpretations come up Duolingo adds them. Because while correct interpretations with set "translations" are certainly necessary, giving US the tools to use the translations that would be most valuable in our own lives is the core of learning a different language. And since we are all different people, in different situations, with different lives, there is no way any single program could come up with every alternative option possible by itself. Which is why feedback is so very important, for ourselves and for Duolingo.

Actually there are no context clues because there are no intended contexts. What there may be are a number of possible contexts. So what we need to do is consider them all and learn them all with none being the most important. Everyone of them is equal to every other. The best way to go about this is by considering a different possible context each time one works with the problem. Do them all. Regard them all. No possible context is the main possible context.

You are completely correct that Duolingo provides no context surrounding the sentence they provide. However, I would be completely surprised to find that you are not attempting to figure out what way the sentence they provide would be in use in your own life. Whether that is you using it yourself in some fashion, hearing a family member using it, hearing it said in a show or movie, whatever way you can imagine it being in actual use. Then most likely you will attempt to translate it into a sentence that would sound natural to you. Your context clues are your real life situations, not what Duolingo provides for you. So yes, there are no context clues, but I am pretty fairly sure your brain will make one up if for no other reason than most of the sentences provided here translated directly from the most common directly correlated word makes, in truth, sentences that don't really make a lot of sense.

Take one word I came across today, "empresario," which the direct translation that I saw meant "entrepreneur." Like the idiot I occasionally am, that is how I translated it there after. It made sense in the first two sentences I saw, so I didn't question it other than to think to myself "I really have never heard the word entrepreneur used so often, seems odd." Later I was translating a sentence where the direct translation I had in my head, "entrepreneur," did not work. It was awkward. But I had it stuck in my head that this was the word I was looking for, so it was all that I could think of as a translation. So I answered with that, it was correct but I'm hesitant, so I click the discussion. It was technically correct, but not the translation they wanted. The translation they wanted was more like "businessman" or "businesswoman." It had never occurred to me. I had no context for it. Now, hopefully, I do. If I remember. :)

Now your admonishment to regard all possible contexts is admirable, but ultimately impossible. I will never think of all of them, I am probably only at best thinking of two or three with each sentence. Given how short most sentences are, there are probably easily a dozen ways each sentence could be used correctly. I will continue to try to translate the sentences in ways that makes sense to me though, and when I'm confused I will continue to come to the discussions. They seem good. At least they have helped me out a few times.

I think you must be mixing in yiur minr the ideas of TRANSLATION and MEANING. These are two different thihgs. A Spanish word can be translated into many different languages... actually, all. And in the different languages there can sometimes be various different words which one might be able to use in a translation. For example, the Spanish word DURO can be translated as : hard, tough, difficult, stiff, severe, hardcore, strong, stale, stern, stuborn, unkind, intensive, hard-hearted, adamant, and more. All these are words which are to be used under different contexts as TRANSLATIONS. Yet, at the same time, DURO has only one MEANING in Spanish..

Translation and meaning are not the same thing. And you obviously have not caught on to that reality as you are mixing up the two ideas. When we translate we pick an English word according to an understood context. In Duolingo it is necessary to make up the context. But Duolingo's computer is limited to just a few possible contexts. It does not use all the words DURO can be translated to as It mainly goes with HARD.

Now there can be many possible TRANSLATIONS, while normally there is but one MEANING to a Spanish word. The meaning of a Spanish word does not normally shift. And it is the MEANING of Spanish words which we most need to understand. Learning translation is but a temporary thing because we will need to ultimately dump thinking in the form of translations. I know that some students like to think that becoming fluent means being able to do translations in one's head well. But in reality, being fluent means not utilizing any sense of the idea of translation. It means using DURO (for instance) as it MEANS and not what it can be translated to in whatever language.

Now here is what you need most to think about here. What does DURO mean? I did not ask what DURO can be translated to. I just gave a bunch of possible English words above. I asked, what is the one thing, the singular idea, that DURO means in Spanish? Again, what a Spanish word means and what it can be translated to in whatever language are two different things.

I agree with a lot, actually the most you write ET, ...but also within a language every word DO have different meanings, in several ways. Language is just a way to communicate after all. But of course one of the meanings of one specific word might have almost the same meaning to most of the people within a group of people using the same language.
But the bottom line of learning a new language is that you have to be humble, and open to alternative usages of the same words in different contexts, all depending on the communicative forum and what and why each 'thing' is being said by very different persons from different subcultures and personalities.
I'd like to think that we agree about that when we learn a new language we do it to understand others and to communicate our thoughts or wishes. And that within a language there is different layers, from words to phrases to sentences, that make up that language's tint, color, feeling or culture. And the sooner you can feel it, think it, dream it or at least being close to that, the sooner you will be able to communicate within that language.
Cheers :-)

One idea. So in French le = the and the rest of lejos makes me think of the word object. The Spanish for eyes is ojos which is also sort of in lejos. So I use my eyes to see the object because it is FAR AWAY. Hope that helps.

I said "Very far away" which I think SHOULD be right, but I'm not sure, and next time I'll stick to "very far" but my bigger issue is one of the correct answers being "Very farDollar". What!?!?? Definitely a mistake on duolingo's part.

+hesolomon, try to first literally talk to yourself in Spanish, without actually speaking out. Start with simple sentences and eventually you'll find yourself subconsciously switching to thinking in Spanish when your thoughts would be possibly better expressed in Spanish.